On Friday, June 2, saxophonist Marques Adams passed away in Atlanta. Marques was a member of the Chapter, a Florida-based R&B-jazz-soul group. With the Chapter, Marques composed “Derrty Jazz,” an instrumental off the album The Return of Real Soul Music that held acclaim in Europe. Adams was currently a senior Jazz Studies and Commercial Music major at Florida A&M University.
Marques, also known as “Quez,” co-founded a neo-soul group called CONCEPT. The group was composed mostly of Marques and his high school friends and toured the North Florida music scene with a variety of original compositions and covers. During his brief but successful career, Marques appeared with Isaac Hayes, Jill Scott, George Clinton and the P-Funk All Stars, Grover Washington Jr., James Moody, Big Daddy Blues & Red Hot Java, Bobby Watson, George Duke and Jimmy Heath, covering styles from blues and soul to straightahead jazz. In a recent e-mail, baritone saxophonist and Roy Hargrove sideman Jason Marshall wrote the following: “Mr. Adams was a close personal friend and mentor of mine. When I first started college, Marques was a classmate of mine as well as the standard by which all other area saxophonists were measured. His dedication, talent and generosity will always be an inspiration to me.”
In 2005, Marques was the recruited soloist for Halftime Live, a musical based on the 2002 film Drumline. To hear Mr. Adams’ music and learn more about his life, visit chapterlive.com or myspace.com/thechapter.
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